The Truth Comes After The Fight
by sockstar
Summary: Carly and Freddie get into a fight during the Root and Berry retreat. Carly/Freddie.
1. Chapter 1

**Rating: **T

**Notes: **Set after iGo Nuclear. This story is shortish, but too long for a single chapter. I feel the story is better in 3 chapters rather than one long one.

_Italics: _These are Carly's thoughts. Basically the story is a regular 3rd person POV, but the Italics represent Carly's direct character voice, commenting on something that the narrator or another character has seen or themselves said. It's a bit weird, but I hope not too confusing.

* * *

**Summary: **Carly and Freddie get into a fight during the Root and Berry retreat. Creddie.

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**Chapter 1**

Carly had gotten sick of the pan flute in about 23 seconds. It was about average for the students gathered around the tent. _I need to leave_.

No teacher would ever stop a student going to the "bathroom" even if they thought the student was lying. _As if that hole in the ground could be considered a bathroom. _Carly was not the type of student a teacher would think was lying anyway. _If I was Sam he would make sure I took someone else with me_. The area wasn't particularly dangerous, there weren't any wild animals. _It's a retreat, not the deep wilderness. _Any that did appear were quickly found and led away from the area by rangers.

She started to clamber all over the rest of the students, including Freddie, Gibby and the handful of other students who had also failed their assignments sitting in the big communal tent where they ate dinner. Thinking about Sam distracted her, as she wondered where her best friend would be right now.

The distraction ended up causing a black and blue memory of the trip, as Carly accidentally kicked Gibby in the shin whilst trying to get through the zippered screen, followed by a mumbled sorry, a stumble and out into the darkness. _Maybe I can get some time to myself_. Carly had hated every minute they had spent there. Freddie never left her alone for more than 5 minutes, up until the she screamed _"Just leave me ALONE!" _at him. Carly tried to say sorry, but the damage was done, and he had really hurt him. _I never meant to._

She surveyed the camp as she walked over to the other side. The burning log fire in the centre, with the tents pitched haphazardly in a rough interval. Each tent was far smaller than the communal tent that their teacher slept in, and only held enough space for 2 people and their bags. It wasn't much of a problem, as their school had supplied them with enough tents to house twice their number, meaning everyone had their own tent. Some of the students slept in the same tent, for company or from necessity. The teacher didn't really mind the few tents that ended up with a girl and boy in them, he knew that there wasn't any couples in the group, only friends.

The necessity part came as Gibby and Freddie had done on the first night because Gibby hadn't set his up properly, it fell apart in the evening and there wasn't enough light to set it up again. The sight of a shirtless Gibby thrashing about under his broken tent made for a good number of videos and pictures, all of which would be passed around once they got back to school. All Gibby did once he extricated himself was start dancing around the fire.

_Why can't he leave me alone? _Treading softly over the fallen logs and damp brush from the rain that had only just stopped falling, she kept walking towards the general area where they had spent the first 2 hours on their first day digging holes in the ground. Carly had always made it clear to Freddie that they were just friends. _I don't believe myself when I tell him_. There were times when she wanted to end the teasing, end his pain and just throw herself at the problem. _Why can't I tell him? _The answer was simple. _I can't love him when he won't tell me the truth.__ He lies to himself. He lies to me. He only says what he thinks I want him to say, even if I ask him for nothing but the truth._

The tree with the huge Y fork in it indicated that she had arrived, and Carly sat down on a crude wooden bench, facing towards the bright, luminous full moon. Ever since she was a little girl, Spencer had always told her the moon was a giant pie, and that all the gouges were from people eating it up. _Sam liked that story as well. _There isn't a prize for understanding why Sam liked it.

_Probably with Spencer_. _She always acts funny around him, when Sam thinks she is alone with him, but I see. _The thought disturbed Carly, not specifically because of their age difference, but simply the trouble, the huge trouble Sam could get all of them into if she did try anything. The long argument, fight and reconciliation that followed Carly confronting Sam about it took more than a few hours, but ended with Sam agreeing with her.

"It won't happen, I promise"_._ _At least for a few years_. Carly knew Sam was lonely. Their friendship didn't fill come close to filling the gaps that her current life had gouged out of her was even a stage where Sam thought that Carly could fill all of them. _She was just confused and hurt. It happens to a lot of people. _Sam latched onto people_. _When those people are supposed to protect and love you but do neither, it leaves the largest gaps of all. In time, with people who do protect and do love, those gaps can be healed. It would take more than one person though.

"Sometimes you need to risk something bad happening to allow something good to happen." Spencer had told her once, during a conversation on a completely unrelated topic, unrelated enough at least that they could be mutually deluded about who was being talking about. _It would be good for him. For me. For us._

Freddie needed to get out from the shadow of his mother, and being with Carly would let him do that. "I think you know why Freddie likes you, and why I would want him to find a girl like you, such a nice girl, always polite, you always make him laugh, he knows you are as smart as he is." Ms Benson took a sip of her tea. "But don't remind him of it, it's always better for men to think they are the smart ones.. oh dear", her laughter trailed off in, just as the images of the memory itself was fading away. Ms Benson was one of the few adults she trusted, her job as a Nurse also meant she was used to being private about things similar to that, which is why Carly had asked her about Freddie. She also knew that Ms Benson trusted her as much as Carly trusted her.

"_But why do you always worry about what he is doing?"_

"Young lady, as long as you are with him, I don't worry at all about what he is doing. Sure, I worry about where he is, but I never worry about what he is doing, because I know that you worry about him enough to keep him safe."

_I could take Freddie to that big bright moon and she would be happy._ She smiled just thinking about herself and Freddie bouncing around on the moon, as Sam floated by eating a space food stick.

_For me? For us?_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Italics are Carly's thoughts.  
_

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Carly and Freddie's current relationship was lopsided. "If Sam jumped off a cliff would you do it as well?" was a phrase uttered by multiple people, including Spencer, her teachers and even Freddie himself, on occasions where Carly followed Sam into one of her dubious schemes. It didn't apply to Freddie though. _I wouldn't need to jump first. I could ask, and Freddie would go. _Freddie would do anything she asked him. Freddie would go up against anyone. He would say or do anything. All Carly has to do is ask. It wasn't how a relationship should work. Even Freddie's most fiercely held beliefs and thoughts, could be subverted and scattered to the wind by one simple phrase, from one girlnext door_. Please, for me?_

_I want him to say no. I want him to get angry. I want him to tell me I screwed up or I'm wrong or I'm being stupid or I'm not perfect and that I hurt him_. Freddie never did. She wanted him to be able to say no, for Freddie to say that I want to do something, and that I will be doing it, no matter what anyone else thinks.

A nearby crow calling startled her, and Carly walked back, and only noticed just how cold it was when she shivered upon nearing the camp again. The pan flute had long since ended, with some of the students sitting around the dying embers of the fire that had been going since sunset. _I will NOT sleep with you, you pervert! _Freddie didn't mean it. As soon as she said the words his face went pale. Freddie couldn't get up his courage enough to ask Carly to kiss him, let alone proposition her. _It_ _made a good excuse to yell at him. _Carly had twisted his words and spat them back.. _He just wants me to be happy_. No-one was within earshot, which meant Freddie had only been humiliated in front of one person. _But I am the only person he cares about here._

_I need for him to tell me I was wrong._

Carly looked around the camp, just to see if Freddie was anywhere else, and to see what was going on. The nightly roll call had been completed before she got back, and she made her way towards the communal tent, checked in with the teacher, who wished her goodnight, ticked off the roll board, making sure everyone was accounted for, and zipped up the tent and went to sleep. Around the camp, the students had made their way into the tents they would be sleeping in, some glowing from lanterns lighting card games, or whispered games of truth or dare, with others dark from people who were already asleep, or unoccupied.

Carly tiptoed her way over to Gibby, asked her question, and was told that Freddie had gone straight to his own tent after they left the communal tent, and hadn't come out all night. Walking over to the tent in question, Carly rustled around in her pockets, took a couple of small tubes out, a comb, and adjusted herself, her clothes, and her hair, then continued over to the tent.

"Freddie.. Freddie, it's me, are you doing anything? Can I come in?"

"Sure." Freddie's reply contained thinly veiled hurt, disguised behind his usual cheerfulness and eagerness to please. _I wonder if he even wants to see me._

Carly waited for the zipper to open, and stepped inside, nearly tripping over one of Freddie's shoes, before sitting down next to the boy. She didn't wait for Freddie to ask any questions. The entry room contained his shoes, his backpack, a smuggled in pearPod, but no other electronics, a few survival items, matches, knives, plates and bowls, some cups, and a large first aid kit. In the sleeping area there was a foam mattress which covered the whole area, and a large blanket, a pillow of sorts was made out of a smaller rolled up length of foam.

_Freddie didn't trust sleeping bags. He always had nightmares that the zipper would get stuck and he wouldn't be able to get out._ The moon shone through the currently uncovered plastic window, giving them more than enough light to see each other perfectly, shining a soft silver light on each other's faces. Freddie sat up, in the sleeping area, and took the blanket off, making a space for Carly to sit in.

"I wanted to say sorry about what I said to you."_ I want to tell you more, please let me tell you more_. Carly could clearly see that he was in pain, but nearly as soon as she sat down, he had put up the fake smile, that he always did when he was hurt but did not want to show anyone. It might have been good enough to fool Sam, or Spencer, and even his mother, but he was nowhere near good enough to fool Carly.

"No, that's cool, it was childish, I shouldn't have said what I did." _I was the one being childish. I was so wrong. I hurt you.  
_

"No, really, it was all my fault."_ Tell me it was._

"Carly, really, it wasn't your fault at all, I shouldn't have said it, and I've been bugging you since we got here, I know why you said it, and I understand what I did wrong. I completely understand if you don't want me to talk to you for the rest of the trip. All I've done is make this trip even worse than it already was." Freddie sighed, he hoped that when they got back home, they would eventually forget about it, and go back to being friends. Just friends.

_I can't give up that easily._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_Italics is Carly thinking._

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"Are we cool?"_ Freddie never likes silence_. Freddie just wanted this to be over, done, finished, yet another example of his own stupidity and inability to separate his feelings from the reality of his situation.

"No."_ That got his attention._

Freddie cocked his eyebrow, and angrily blurted out "What do you want me to do? I said I was sorry."

"Tell me why you should be sorry."

"Look, I asked if you wanted to sleep in my tent with me, alright." _It was starting to get to him_.

"What's so bad about that?"

"You know why it's bad. I can't keep saying things like that, even though I didn't mean it in that way."

"I know you didn't mean it. Was I right to yell at you?"_ Please say no._

Carly noticed that Freddie was unsure of where this was heading, and he managed to choke out "Not really, but it was just a misunderstanding." _A misunderstanding that I screamed at you for._

"What did I say to you then?"

Freddie couldn't be more unsure if he sat there for an hour wondering what was going on. "You called me a pervert. You said you wanted me to leave you alone."

"Do you agree with what I said? Are you a pervert? Should you leave me alone?"

"If you aren't happy I want to make you happy, I like to think I can make you more happy by being with you than leaving you alone. Especially in this dump."

"So you aren't a pervert?"

"No.. at least I don't think I am?" He stared at his feet. It was starting to really confuse Freddie. He wasn't sure what Carly wanted him to say anymore. He glanced over at Carly, "No. I am not a pervert." _He's finally starting to say what he actually believes, not what he thinks I want him to say._

"How did that make you feel?"

"How did what feel?" Freddie was Confused again.

"How did me calling you a pervert and telling you to leave me alone make you feel." Carly rammed the point home.

"I'm used to it by now. Sam calls me stuff like that all the time." His lip was quivering, he felt Carly looking straight at him, staring into his core. _He's still not saying what he really thinks_.

"Are you sure Freddie? I'm not Sam."_ You are running out of chances._

"Look, really, it's nothing, don't worry about it, I said something really stupid, and you weren't feeling well." _Patronising someone you are in love with is not the way to go about getting them to realise they might love you back._

Freddie hesitated. He looked like he was about to say something, but stopped. _One question and it would be done either way. It's up to Freddie to answer it_.

"You are okay with it, even though I yelled at you for saying you wanted to sleep with me?" Carly asked in nagging, almost annoyed tone.

"That's not what I said though." _Finally!_ "I only asked if you wanted to sleep in my tent together that night." Carly suppressed a smile."I didn't mean to say what I said, and you completely twisted my words. That isn't right. It made me feel bad." He wouldn't stop now.

"You told me to leave you alone. You know I never want to leave you alone. The last thing I want to do is make you feel bad. But what you said, that wasn't my fault." Freddie had to fight to keep his voice down. _Go on. Say it._

"That was your fault. What you said made hurt me, and it wasn't my fault. You didn't need to yell at me. It hurt me. It made me angry, after all the times I've tried to help you, to make you feel better, to make it sound like I was trying to hurt you on purpose. I never want to make you leave me, I never want you to be angry at me. I never want to hurt you, and I don't want you to hurt me... you hurt me Carly."

Freddie was starting to ramble, with a couple of tears rolling down his cheek. He had built a barrier, designed not to hurt anyone, but meant to avoid conflict, deny problems, and he had never dropped that barrier for anyone before Carly forced him to take it down. It had kept his emotions, he responses, his ideas and thoughts bottled up inside, hoping that doing so would keep everyone happy. It had worked until now. Carly was the last person he wanted that wall to collapse on. Carly whispered for Freddie to stop_, _she had to repeat it a few times, but he finally calmed down.

"I'm so sorry about what I did. Freddie, can you forgive me?"

"I forgive you Carly. You know I never want to make you feel bad."

"I never want to hurt you again."

"I... ah.. am sorry about what I said just then."

"You never have to say sorry to me for something that is true." Carly wiped off the remaining tear on his cheek, then lifted his chin up. "I love you Fredward Benson. Just make sure you always tell me the truth from now on, even if it's not what you think I want to hear."

Freddie's entire face lit up, and his eyes widened, just in time to see Carly leaning over in the moonlight, as she started to pull his face towards her. Their hearts pounded, their lips touched, and they kissed. They played together, their tongues dancing, hands moving up and down the side of their bodies, around each other's neck, tangled in each other's hair, the feelings that had been built up over so long finally coming crashing down on each other. A mix of joyous emotions, and something neither of them would forget for a very long time.

It went on for some time, the touching, the kissing, the smiling, the laughter, until they finally broke apart.

Carly stopped for a moment, breathlessly asking her new boyfriend, "Was that everything you thought it was going to be?"

_Fredward Benson. Boyfriend_ _of Carly Shay. I like that._ _It's nice. It feels right._

Freddie was beaming. His burden was released. He had finally figured out what he really did wrong, and knew that he would never do that to Carly again.

"It was everything I thought it was going to be, and more... I love you, Carly Shay. I always have, and always will." _It was the truth, and that was all I ever wanted._

"It's getting late, I think we should get some sleep. We will have a lot of stuff to talk about tomorrow."_ If I can stop kissing you for more than 5 minutes. _Carly lay down on the foam mattress, and pulled the blanket back up onto the mattress.

"Yeah, you are right, it's pretty late now, and I think we might have woken a few people up." Freddie whispered, covered the plastic window, lay down flat on the mattress, and looked at Carly, a vague but beautiful outline in the darkness, hovering just above him.

"Just one thing though." Freddie kissed her once more, softly and sweetly, before he turned over to sleep on his side like he always did. Carly lay down on her side as well, with her back snuggled on his chest, Carly placed one of his arms around her waist, with his hand on her stomach. Carly felt safe, protected. Freddie moved his lower arm over to stroke her hair a few times, moved down her face and shoulder, and finally he found her hand, and intertwined their fingers together.

"_What is it?" _Carly said in her soft voice, so soft that Freddie wouldn't have been able to hear except for the fact she was only inches away from him. It sent a chill up his spine.

_We ended up sleeping in the same tent anyway?_

"It really does taste like Pina Colada."

Everyone still awake in the camp heard her loud, girly laugh echo through the trees, before everything fell silent again.

_I knew Freddie would like that._

**The End.**


End file.
